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BIDEN EXPANDS ABORTION, CONTRACEPTION PROTECTIONS ON ROE ANNIVERSARY

By Dan Diamond
January 22, 2024 at 5:00 a.m. EST

President Biden is moving to emphasize differences between his administration
and Republican challengers on reproductive rights. (Leah Millis/Reuters)

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The White House on Monday is announcing new steps intended to ensure access to
contraception, abortion medication and emergency abortions at hospitals. It
represents President Biden’s latest bid to contrast himself with Republican
challengers who support strict abortion limits and arrives on the anniversary of
the Supreme Court ruling that guaranteed abortion rights for nearly 50 years.



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The effort to expand access to contraception involves several measures. Federal
agencies are issuing guidance that would make no-cost contraceptives more
available under the Affordable Care Act and take similar actions to expand
contraception access for federal employees. Health and Human Services Secretary
Xavier Becerra also plans to send a letter to health insurers instructing them
of their obligation to provide no-cost contraceptives, according to a memo the
White House sent to reporters Sunday.

The federal health department also announced a new team dedicated to enforcing
its interpretation of a law, known as the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor
Act, or EMTALA, which the Biden administration has said requires hospitals to
provide emergency abortions nationwide, including in the 21 states where the
procedure is limited or banned.

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Meanwhile, Biden on Monday is expected to convene two dozen senior officials in
the White House for a meeting of his reproductive health task force, where he
will be joined by several physicians who have practiced in states with abortion
bans. Vice President Harris is slated to kick off a multistate reproductive
rights tour with a visit to Wisconsin, where she is expected to criticize a
proposal by state Republicans to ban abortion after 14 weeks of pregnancy.
Wisconsin’s Democratic governor has already said he will veto the bill.

“On this day and every day, Vice President Harris and I are fighting to protect
women’s reproductive freedom against Republicans’ dangerous, extreme, and
out-of-touch agenda,” Biden said in a statement.

The Biden administration’s actions — coming on what would have been the 51st
anniversary of the landmark ruling in Roe v. Wade, before the Supreme Court
overturned the constitutional right to abortion in 2022 — reflect Democrats’
ongoing effort to highlight an issue that gives them a strong political
advantage. Fifty-eight percent of all voters, including about 1 in 5
Republicans, said they trust Democrats more than Republicans on abortion,
according to a November poll conducted by KFF, a health policy organization.

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“Where abortion has been on the ballot, the American people have overwhelmingly
voted to protect reproductive freedom,” Jennifer Klein, director of the White
House’s Gender Policy Council, told reporters last week, citing states such as
Kansas and Ohio where voters last year sided with measures protecting abortion
rights.



Biden and Harris are slated to make their first joint campaign appearance of the
year on Tuesday in Northern Virginia, alongside first lady Jill Biden and second
gentleman Douglas Emhoff, where all four White House principals will focus on
reproductive heath issues, campaign officials said.

The moves highlight Biden’s effort to shore up support among key allies, who
have called for the White House to take stronger action to boost abortion
access. Abortion rights advocates have been frustrated with the administration’s
implementation of the emergency-care law, citing a case in which federal
officials did not penalize an Oklahoma hospital that denied an emergency
abortion to a woman with a potentially life-threatening pregnancy complication.

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Biden officials have insisted that the president is the nation’s strongest
defender of abortion rights, contrasting his efforts with Republicans who are
attempting to replace him.

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Former president Donald Trump, seeking to reclaim the White House, has bragged
about his role in America’s reversal on abortion access. As president, Trump
nominated three of the five Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe in
2022.

“For 54 years, they were trying to get Roe v. Wade terminated, and I did it,” he
said at a Fox News town hall this month. “I’m proud to have done it.”

Trump’s staunch supporters in the antiabortion movement have begun to envision
how he would carry out their agenda, such as enacting new restrictions on
abortion pills. However, Trump has said that Republicans should consider
moderating their focus on abortion bans. “You have to win elections,” he said at
the town hall.

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Biden officials have said they are continuing to work with Congress to enact
legislation that would provide a national right to abortion.

“As we’ve been really clear, the president, the vice president, everyone in the
administration, the number one priority for all of us is working to pass a
federal law that will restore the protections that were lost when Roe was
overturned,” Klein told reporters last week.

Little evidence exists of common ground on Capitol Hill. House and Senate
Republicans have made repeated efforts to target abortion access, including
introducing legislation last week that would implement a 50 percent tax credit
for donations made to crisis pregnancy centers, which aim to dissuade women from
having abortions.

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“Despite what the radical pro-abortion left wants us to believe, the pro-life
movement is also a pro-woman movement with a long history of empowering women
during pregnancy and after,” Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), who co-authored
the legislation, said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Senate Democrats last week held an event where they vowed to continue
combating Republicans’ antiabortion legislation.

“This isn’t a PR problem for women — it is a living hell and a personal
nightmare,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said.




ABORTION ACCESS IN AMERICA

Tracking abortion access in the United States: Since the Supreme Court struck
down Roe v. Wade, the legality of abortion has been left to individual states.
The Washington Post is tracking states where abortion is legal, banned or under
threat.

Abortion pills: The Supreme Court will decide this term whether to limit access
to the abortion pill mifepristone. Oral arguments are likely to be scheduled for
the spring, with a decision by the end of June. For now, full access to
mifepristone will remain in place.

Battles over access: Abortion access remains divisive politically and legally.
In December, a pregnant woman in Texas lost her legal battle for permission to
end her pregnancy. A Kentucky woman went to court asserting the state’s abortion
restrictions violate her constitutional right to privacy.

Post-Roe America: With Roe overturned, women who had secret abortions before Roe
v. Wade felt compelled to speak out. Other women who were seeking abortions
while living in states with strict abortion bans also shared their experiences
with The Post through calls, text messages and other documentation. Here are
photos and stories from across America since the reversal of Roe v. Wade.

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